Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-05-28

oGc9s
a gentleman; I don't care much about the
money, I'll take a thousand for a third share
II l can get O gentleman-none of your Beers
or mean whites for me. I tell you, I have
had enough of Beers and their ways; the best
day of my life was when old Shepstone ran
up the Union Jack there in Pretoria and I
could call myself an Englishman again.
Lord! and to think that there are men who
are subjects of the queen and want to be sub
jects of a republic again! Mad! Capt. Mel,
I tell you, quite mad! However, there's an
end of it all now. You know what Sir Gar
net Wolseley told them in the name of the
queen up at the Vaal river, that this
country would remain English till
the sun stood still in the heavens
and the waters of the Vaal ran backward.
That's good enough for me, for, as l tell these
grumbliEg fellows who want the land back
now that we have paid their debts and de-
feated their enemies, no English government
goes back on its word, or breaks engagements
solemnly entered into by its representatives.
We leave that sort of thing to foreigners,
No, no, Capt. Mel, I would not ask you to
take a share in this place if l wasn't sure that
it would remain under the British flag. But
we will talk of all this another time, and now
come in to breakfast"
After breakfast, as John was far too lame
to go about the farm, the fair Bessie sug-
gested that he should come and help her to
wash a batch Of ostrich feathers, and, &C
cordingly, of he went. The locus operandi
was in a space of grass in the rear of a little
clump OF 'naatche" orange trees, Of which
the fruit is like that of the Maltese orange,
only larger. Here were placed an ordinary
washing tub half filled with warm water and
q tin bath full Of cold. Tho ostrich feathers,
many of which were completely coated with
red dirt. were plunged first into the tub Of
warm water, where John Mel scrubbed them
with soap, and then transferred to the tin
bath, where Bessie rinsed them and then laid
them on a sheet in the sun to dry. The
morning was very pleasant, and John soon
many more disagreeable occupations in
the world than the washing of ostrich
feathers with q lovely girl to help you; for
there was no doubt but that she was lovely,
a very type of happy, healthy ~womanhood,
as she sat there opposite to him on the little
stool, her sleeves rolled up almost to the
shoulder, showing a pair Of arms thai would
not have disgraced a statue of Venus, and
laughed n chatted away as she washed the
feathers. Now, John Mel was not a suscepti-
BILE man; he had gone through the fire years
before and burned his fingers like many
another confiding y~oungster; but, all the
same, he did wonder as he sat there and
watched this fair girl, who somehow reminded
him OF a rich rosebud bursting into bloom,
how long it would be possible to live in the
same house with her without falling under
tho spell Of bar charm and beauty. And
then he began to think Of jess, and what q
strange contrast the two were.
SWhere IS your ~sister!" he asked presently.
"Jessi Oh, I think that she has gone to
the Lion Kloof, reading or sketching, 1 don't
know which. You see, in this establishment
l represent labor and jess represents intel
lect," and she nodded her head prettily at
him, and added, There is a mistake some-
where; she got all the brains"
@Ah," said John, quietly, and looking up ut
hsr, Il don't think that you are entitled to
complain of the way that nature has treated
you"
She blushed . little, more at the tone Of his
voice than the words, and went on hastily:
-Jeo Is the dearest, best and cleverest woman
IN the whole world-there, I believe that she
mas only one fault, and that Is that she THINKS
700 much about me. Uncle told me that he
mad told you how we came here first when I
vas = years old. Well, I remember that
when we lost our way. on the veldt that
g5oht, end 1t rained % and was 30 cold, Jen
~ AZ bar own shawl and wrnppsd Il round